Rare find

[Shellseeker]

I went out again yesterday. It has been such a long time and even though deep water and fast currents added some problems, I was so pleased hunting in the sunshine, doing what I enjoy most.  

I found a lot of pretty normal fossils,  but in the 2nd Sieve, there was a small black flash of enamel. I thought because it was so small.. but as I picked it up, I got that thrill of not knowing which fauna produced this tooth.

 There is the imbedded sand, which I thought was the concrete silica type rather than loose type. But my 1st thought was llama.... I had found a Hemiauchenia gracilis in the Peace river near Bowling Green,  but this was smaller than that tooth !!!

Note that the crown height is 18 mm !!! and the APL less than 11 mm.  That is one small mammal that looks like a Llama but has teeth smaller than any Llama I have ever seen. EXCITING !!! I sent an email with Photos to Richard Hulbert, who still helps me with Identifications.

Richard's response:

Quote

You are going to have to clean the sand off the specimen, but I will bet that this turns out to be a tooth from an antilocaprid (pronghorn). If Blancan, the only kind known from Florida is Capromeryx, which is of small size, so that fits.  Richard

YES !! YES !!! YES .  In 15 years, this is my 1st pronghorn.  I immediately check the Internet...Most of the Research papers have few good comparison photos:

This is the best.... Capromeryx arizonensis, found in a North Florida River ,  with a video on Youtube.. 

Unless he has small hands,  the one on the left is still a lot larger than mine. 

So I clean the sand off, It was easy because it was just grains

 

I sent more photos to Richard...

He told me that the museum has no records of Capromeryx in Southwest Florida.  So I offered to give it to him for study if only @digitwho I see in two weeks will agree to take this one back to Richard in Gainesville. 

Richard also told me he thinks it is an upper left Molar...

 

That's a lot of info... Richard thinks it is an Upper left Molar of a Capromeryx and I hope some one on the Forum will see this thread, post better photos of Capromeryx teeth than I have included in this post...

 

I am ecstatic... the game is afoot. Is this C. arizonensis or maybe 

Capromeryx furicifer: one of the smallest artiodactyls known, being 24 inches (61 cm) at the shoulder and 25 pounds (11 kg) in weight.

Never made it further east than Texas... Maybe one of out Texas experts found one of it's teeth...  Who knows  ??

I love this hobby...

 

 

[Shellseeker]

@Fossildude19

Tim, Do you see what I see... In the Unread preview for this posting , there are 6 oyster photos that I did not add to this thread in addition to the 6 I did add.   ???????

[Fossildude19]

13 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

@Fossildude19

Tim, Do you see what I see... In the Unread preview for this posting , there are 6 oyster photos that I did not add to this thread in addition to the 6 I did add.   ???????

 

 

I did Jack. Seems to be an occasional issue when two people are posting at the same time, the photos from one end up in someone else's topic.

I've removed them.

[Pagurus]

26 minutes ago, Shellseeker said:

I am ecstatic... the game is afoot.

 

I'm happy you've been able to get back to the river again, and what a find! Your efforts, your finds, your detective work and your eagerness to share your discoveries are inspiring. I'm happy you're happy.

[Yoda]

@Shellseeker

Exciting find for you 

[minnbuckeye]

ANOTHER great find! And with water levels that can't be great. Don't let a hurricane wash this one away!

 

Mike

[digit]

9 hours ago, Shellseeker said:

He told me that the museum has no records of Capromeryx in Southwest Florida.  So I offered to give it to him for study if only @digitwho I see in two weeks will agree to take this one back to Richard in Gainesville. 

I'll be more than happy to courier this back to Richard. I'll even hand deliver it.

 

Very exciting find! Because you've been paying attention to mammal teeth (in particular all those 3-toed horse teeth you keep finding) and trying to get them all identified, you were able to spot this one for the novelty that it is. Another great example of non-academic paleontologists contributing significantly to the fossil record.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[RJB]

Congrats Jack

 

RB

[C2fossils]

WOW! Nice find Jack!

[old bones]

Wow, Jack @Shellseeker! How exciting to find something so rare!

[Plantguy]

Outstanding find Jack!

Congrats!

Regards, Chris

[Jaybot]

Glad you finally got out to hunt!  And awesome (very rare) find!  Weird to imagine Pronghorn in FL... Just a few hundred years ago, Pronghorn used to be in Kansas as well.

 

Just a side fun fact- did you know that the American Pronhorn is the 2nd fastest land animal in the world, just behind the African Cheetah?  Pronghorn can reach 55-60 mph, and can steadily run at 30 mph for over 20 miles.

-Which makes it the fastest land herbivore in the world.  Makes me wonder if there were even faster species of which we find the fossil remains...

 

Do you happen to know of a good reference material (or a paper) for Pronghorn teeth?  I like to save as much reference material as I can

 

Anyways, nice find Jack!  Sometimes the small finds end up being the rarest.

 

 

 

[Shellseeker]

Thanks to all for their good wishes and congratulations.  My reason for delay in responding is (what it always is) that I went out today fossil hunting at one of my favorite locations. This hunt was NOT the Peace River.. That is way too high to risk life and limb trying to hunt fossils in deep water and fast currents..

I found a lot  of nice fossils today but nothing as rare as this Pronghorn tooth. I am back in the game. I was out Friday, Wednesday, and Friday and plan to go hunting Sunday. I am trying to recover the muscle strength that I lost during hurricanes. A lot of sore muscles and joints this evening.  I get a lot of help from my friends. 

 

I'll post tomorrow on the best of recent finds and provide whatever updates I can on this Capromeryx.

[Shellseeker]

22 minutes ago, Jaybot said:

Do you happen to know of a good reference material (or a paper) for Pronghorn teeth?  I like to save as much reference material as I can

I saw some research papers in my initial scan yesterday . Will likely put 2-3 hours searching the internet tomorrow and will post the results of my searching.   Jack